Total BS. I have proven that my system runs great with the tuning adapter disconnected.

Which is the point, as I pointed "them" to this thread as proof.

Since I last did the channel fix and disconnect from the internet. The GC updated after about 3 days. Then hung on that date. I gave it 3 days, disconnected the internet. On the third day GC updated. The last GC update (result from internet disconnect) last Wed appeared stuck, but yesterday evening I noticed that GC HAD updated on its own!!!!

The only theory I can come up with is that channel map updates from the TA adversely affect the box's ability to run GC. However, not knowing where on the hard drive the map updates are stored, I can't offer any quantifiable information that would support this theory.

They aren't. The Channel Map is stored within the CableCards. The TA overwrites this (I'm not certain if it is overwritten in memory or on the CableCards) dynamically.

Total BS. I have proven that my system runs great with the tuning adapter disconnected.

Agreed. TA issues aside, any DB corruption of the schedule data should be over-written with the next phone home. I find it unlikely any persistent issues would be related to a hard drive problem, unless accompanied by very significant other issues. The guide data and the setup data are all kept in the MFS areas.

Since I last did the channel fix and disconnect from the internet. The GC updated after about 3 days. Then hung on that date. I gave it 3 days, disconnected the internet. On the third day GC updated. The last GC update (result from internet disconnect) last Wed appeared stuck, but yesterday evening I noticed that GC HAD updated on its own!!!!

So the GC clock is ticking again 8Oct2011.

I'm going to experiment with my system. This is what I will do:

1. I just disconnected the internet and I will leave it off until the GC updates by itself.

2. I will reconnect, let the new data download automatically, and wait for the GC to not update for 3 days.

3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 until I can get a natural GC change with the internet connected.

We will see. Teeps, let us know if your system continues to function properly. You should know in the next day or so.

1. I just disconnected the internet and I will leave it off until the GC updates by itself.

2. I will reconnect, let the new data download automatically, and wait for the GC to not update for 3 days.

3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 until I can get a natural GC change with the internet connected.

We will see. Teeps, let us know if your system continues to function properly. You should know in the next day or so.

This morning I checked the Tivo and I had the disconnected tuning adapter message. Seems that while I was fumbling around with the internet disconnect I separated the tuning adapter brick from its power cord. I have very tight quarters back there.

At any rate, there was a failed call but also a GC update. Not sure why the GC updated - was it because the tuning adapter was disconnected or because there was a failed call?

I now have the tuning adapter connected, I forced a call, and I will leave it alone for a few days until the GC doesn't update. Then I will disconnect the internet again.

My dbgc is still running after 101 hours, it is still spitting out rubbish info once in a while...

This test confirms my theory that the daily call is what kills of dbgc after ~24 hours. No wonder dbgc never completed before if it needs 4+ days.

I am going to let it run for a couple more days, chances are it will finish.

You are well beyond my technical capability. If your theory proves out, can we use this to do something to help our situation?? Or is this something Tivo could use to fix the situation. Not that they would. All new efforts seem to be focused on Premier only.

Just to add some data points. This is happening for users with TWC, upgraded drives and tuning adaptors. I was able to get GC to update with only allowing the TiVo to talk on Wednesdays. I have now rebuilt the TiVo with a 2GB swap file to test. I am Dallas with TWC, with a moto TA and a TiVo HD with a 2TB drives

Just to add some data points. This is happening for users with TWC, upgraded drives and tuning adaptors.

Not entirely true, as my S3 had the problem with standard HDD, before installing a DVR_Dude 2tb drive.

My S3 developed this problem, with standard HDD, about 1 month after the Cisco Tuning Adapter (Time Warner) was put online here in Torrance,CA.
First sign of problem was the "running out of guide data" message.
Then after several forced connections S03 error occurs.

I am getting tired of baby sitting my Tivos just so they can do their most basic function: Record a TV show.

How would you feel if you got a news paper subscription and the paperboy wouldn't drop your paper off unless you're waiting at the end of your driveway at 5 o'clock in the morning?

I don't know how many times I pulled up a show on Now Playing List and it was another show. Tivo thought it was the right show because it never loaded updated guide data.

How do you feel when Tivo refuses to record anything because it has run out of guide data, yet when I pull up the guide I have days of guide data.

I am just dumbstruck when I go into the To Do List and it shows that it is currently recording TV Show A. When I go to Live TV the Guide Info is for TV Show B. My Tivo either has a split personality or faulty software!

This is a serious flaw that is not being acknowledged by Tivo. I have very little faith that they will attempt to resolve as all support is funneled into fixing their half baked premiere products.

TWC's DVRs came a long way. They are on par with Tivos on speed, but the UI is just puke.
MythTV is looking better every year, it's now a viable solution with cable card & TA support. It's a lot of money to replicate what my Tivo should be doing.
We could go to court, but even if we win (in 2-5 years) Tivo would probably just go bankrupt. (And my Tivo would still not work)

I am going with Option #4.

My primary goal is to come up with a workaround that is fully automated.
We may or may not be able to identify the root cause of the issue, but we will be able to eliminate a bunch of potential causes and this can help Tivo with providing a permanent fix.

Quote:

Originally Posted by WO312

You are well beyond my technical capability. If your theory proves out, can we use this to do something to help our situation?? Or is this something Tivo could use to fix the situation. Not that they would. All new efforts seem to be focused on Premier only.

Not entirely true, as my S3 had the problem with standard HDD, before installing a DVR_Dude 2tb drive.

My S3 developed this problem, with standard HDD, about 1 month after the Cisco Tuning Adapter (Time Warner) was put online here in Torrance,CA.
First sign of problem was the "running out of guide data" message.
Then after several forced connections S03 error occurs.

If its happening on a stock drive,Please keep after tivo support. Those of us with upgraded drives have no hope of getting them to fix it.

My primary goal is to come up with a workaround that is fully automated. We may or may not be able to identify the root cause of the issue, but we will be able to eliminate a bunch of potential causes and this can help Tivo with providing a permanent fix.

Well, as I understand it, the issue can be temporarily abated by taking down the internet connection to the Tivo for 3 or 4 days, right? One possibility would be to set up a proxy server for the TiVo's internet connections. The proxy can be set to automatically disable itself for 3 or 4 days at a time and then come back online for 5 or 6 days.

If it is true that it only affects TWC, how could that be? What could be different in the TWC implementation of SDV compared to everybody else??

Oh, I can think of a number of different possibilities. One that jumps to mind is the number of SDV channels may be huge, especially when one considers duplicates. Perhaps some buffer somewhere is overflowing when the number of channels reported by the TA exceeds some magic number (2047, maybe?). This buffer overflow could then be corrupting the GC process in some very specific way.

I'm not saying this is the case, it's just one possible scenario.

Quote:

Originally Posted by WO312

And I'll never understand why this only affects what must be a relatively small number of people, or there would be an uproar.

Again, there are lots of possibilities. The specific lineup may have something to do with it, or a firmware rev. With that in mind, are any of you running the same version I am:

Quote:

Originally Posted by WO312

And why my 1 TB upgrade worked great, and the problem only started with the 2 TB upgrade.

I would tend to suspect coincidence on that venue. Any chance you still have your 1T laying around for testing purposes?

It's been sweeping ever since, you can see that it maybe picked up ~60 objects over a 4 day period.

I tried to increase dbgc's (and children's) priorities thinking that it was cpu starved but it made no difference.

My guess is maybe guide records in mfs apps are locked and dbgc is idling away waiting for a record to be freed. (I have no idea if there are record locks in mfs) I also observed very little cpu activity and strace was also pretty boring to watch...

Do you think routerplus would provide any insight?

I attached my TA's sw info below.

... Also, I have 3 TivoHDs and all of them are having this issue. I purchased them years apart, so we can rule out bad hardware.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lrhorer

Well, as I understand it, the issue can be temporarily abated by taking down the internet connection to the Tivo for 3 or 4 days, right? One possibility would be to set up a proxy server for the TiVo's internet connections. The proxy can be set to automatically disable itself for 3 or 4 days at a time and then come back online for 5 or 6 days.

I would tend to suspect coincidence on that venue. Any chance you still have your 1T laying around for testing purposes?

I DO still have my 1 TB . Not a bad idea. Maybe I will do the experiment, but it's a real pain to open my Tivo as I have it sandwiched pretty well. I think I will continue with my current experiment first.

WO312,
DO NOT RUN CHANNEL LINE UP FIX IF YOU RECEIVED S03 ERROR!
YOU WILL GET STUCK IN A NEVER ENDING GUIDED SETUP -> S03 -> REBOOT LOOP!
If you have S03 Error, you can fix it by running "Clear program information & To Do List"

Well I recently had the S03 error, and I fixed it by doing the channel line up fix, and it worked for me. It rebooted twice and then it was all good.

PS: People have asked if this only happens on drives 1TB and above. The answer is no. It happened on my 750GB drive. TiVo told me the drive was bad so I bought a brand new 2TB drive from weaknees, and had the problem again in just a few weeks. Now I keep it under control by unplugging the internet connection for >48 hours every now and then.

Process ID changes every time so these processes must be dying for some reason. Any idea what s=0x30001 represents?
Edit: I found ackSyncId string in tivoapp @ 01EA9E20 and MakeDeltas @ 01EA9D90
lrhorer: would you attempt to ID purpose?

Router will allow this Tivo to connect at midnight tonight, will see how long it will take to complete next dbgc run.

Well, unplugging the internet connection did not seem to be doing any good. My last GC was right after I had to clear and delete last August to correct SO3 error. Two months ago.Today GC was still on August 10. So today I did the Channel fix and the GC finally updated to today, Oct. 11. Maybe two months of garbage was too much for the Tivo HD to handle in 3 days or so of being disconnected from the internet. I am going to watch the updates and when it gets 4 days behind the program guide connection, I will try the internet disconnect again for a couple of days.